A Wonderful Weasley-time
by Arwen J Hui
Summary: AU. It's Christmastime and Hermione is spending it with the Weasley family! Hilarity ensues and romance blooms. Rated T for slight swearing.


**It's been two years since the war, Fred is alive, Hermione found her parents, and I'm a ruddy mess because I have fic ideas coming out of my ears and not enough hands to write them! If you're wondering, I have several OTPs and I ship them all! **

**Obviously AU but I think somewhere in the depths of my psychotic brain, a tiny smidgen of hope remains for Fred. I'd really love a Weasley. Sadly, I did not get one for Christmas.**

**BLANKET DISCLAIMER: From here to the end I own nothing but the story line. Characters and everything else belong to Queen Jo.**

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What is better than Christmas with the Weasley family? If you said "nothing", you would be correct! Molly always had something delicious going in the kitchen and the smells filled the Burrow from bottom to top. Snowball fights were guaranteed as were the hot cocoa and cookies that followed. The entire Weasley brood was together all at once and Molly and Arthur couldn't hope for more. This year, however, there was a slight change of plan. Instead of just Harry spending Christmas week with them, Hermione had convinced her parents to treat themselves to a second honeymoon, a Christmas cruise in the Mediterranean, which meant Hermione would be staying at the Burrow.

On the morning of Christmas Eve, Ginny was the first of what Arthur called "The Perpetual Children" to awake. She breathed in a deep breath and after a quick glance out her window she hopped across her tiny room to the guest bed where a very sleepy Hermione snored. "Hermione!" Ginny hissed as she shook her best friend awake. "Wake up!"

"No, thank you," Hermione mumbled, retreating further into the multiple layers of blankets that provided so much warmth and protection. She curled herself into a ball and buried her head in her pillow so that she could go back to sleep.

"Hermione, come on!" Ginny groaned. She lifted up blanket after blanket until she found Hermione's ankles and dragged her out of her blanket cave. "There's snow outside my window waiting to be thrown at the boys. Will you please get up?"

"No, Gin!" Hermione whined. She crawled back under the safety of her blankets but Ginny just pulled her back out."Bloody hell, Gin!" Hermione growled. "It's too early! We're on holiday!"

"Oh, my. Haven't had our morning cuppa yet, have we?" Ginny cooed, hoping to annoy Hermione out of bed. "Help me throw snowballs at my sleeping brothers and Harry and then we can go back to sleep, okay? Please?" Ginny pouted and folded her hands until Hermione sighed and stood up. "Goody!" Ginny said clapping her hands together. "Let's do this before Mum wakes up."

Hermione yawned as she stumbled over to the window and made two oblong snowballs. "This is as good as it gets, Gin," Hermione yawned when Ginny gave her a questioning look regarding the shape of the snowballs. "It's too early and it doesn't help that we were playing cards until three o'clock."

The two girls tiptoed down the hall and up the stairs to Ron's room where, hopefully, the twins, Harry, and Ron were still asleep. Luckily they were fast asleep, but the girls had to stifle their giggles at the sight of them. Ron was sprawled out flat on his back and upside-down on his bed with his head hanging off the end while Harry had his legs tucked under himself so that his rear was up in the air and he somewhat resembled a snail what with his blankets all bunched up. Fred and George both had boxes of their latest product, wind-up ducks dressed in Christmas hats that would quack and then explode whenever someone got too close, open at the feet of their sleeping bags as they slept on their stomachs and snored.

"I get Ron and Harry, you get Fred and George," Ginny whispered as she crept along the wall to the beds. Hermione stayed where she was and prepared to throw the snowballs at her unsuspecting victims. Ginny mouthed a countdown and she and Hermione chucked the frozen balls at the boys and scampered out faster than first years racing to get out of Snape's classroom.

"Go, go, go, go, go!" Ginny said as she shut her bedroom door behind her which muffled the four streams of cursing and screaming from the floor above. "Get back in bed," she whispered. "Pretend to be asleep."

Hermione didn't need to be told twice and she gladly wrapped herself in her still warm blankets and shut her eyes tight. Immediately after she and Ginny had gotten back into their beds, Ron came bursting into the room with little chunks of snow clinging to his hair. "What the hell, Ginny!?" he demanded.

"Merlin's beard, don't you knock?" Ginny said rubbing the false sleep from her eyes.

"We know you did this," Ron scowled, pointing to his head as his brothers and Harry appeared behind him.

"What did I do?" Ginny asked, sounding sincerely confused.

"You threw snowballs at us!" George scowled.

"I didn't do that!" Ginny smiled sweetly and said, "Morning, Harry," and blew him a kiss.

"I'm trying to sleep over here!" Hermione yelled with her head under the covers.

"Yeah," Fred said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "And I'm a bowl of pudding."

"You are a bit of a pudding-head," Hermione chuckled, peaking over her blankets. "Pudding-head Fred! I quite like this new nickname." Fred walked purposefully over to Hermione's bed, yanked the covers down, and shook the cold snow out of his hair onto her. "No!" Hermione shrieked, shielding herself with her pillow but Fred knocked it out of the way and grabbed her hands.

"Ha!" he exclaimed. "Your hands are cold as ice! You threw the snowballs, didn't you, 'Mione?"

"She wouldn't do that on her own," George said thoughtfully. "Ginny, give me your hands," George said, turning toward his sister menacingly.

"No!" Ginny barked and she sat on her hands. George grabbed her by her legs and turned her upside-down. She shrieked at him to put her down as Ron took hold of her flailing hands and felt them.

"Her hands are cold, too," said Ron.

"What in Merlin's name is going on up here!?" came Mrs. Weasley's voice as she appeared in the doorway. Fred dropped Hermione's hands and he and everyone else turned towards the door. "George! Put your sister down this instant! Why are you boys wet?" Everyone started talking at once, pointing fingers, and shouting to be heard over the others. Molly put up her hands for silence and took a deep breath. "Honestly, you're all of age; do I have to keep treating you like children? Get dressed, get downstairs, and settle this outside before breakfast. Dress warmly and no magic!" She turned on her heels and went back down the stairs leaving the six of them stunned and ashamed.

"Snowball fight!" the twins shouted simultaneously. George dropped Ginny on to her bed and ran off with Fred to get dressed for their wintertime war.

...

Outside, the six "children" stood bundled in their warmest winter clothes. Their cheeks already stung from the cold wind and Hermione was bouncing from one leg to the other in an attempt to stay warm.

"Here are the rules," George started, his warm breath condensing the air in front of him. "You can take up as much space for your fort as you need, but you are not allowed walls higher than a meter."

"No oddly colored snow is allowed," Fred said pointedly. "There was a rather disgusting incident last winter and I'd rather not relive it. You cannot put rocks, twigs, or any harmful materials into the snowballs. Percy almost lost an eye because of that."

"Guerilla warfare is permitted and teams will be us and Harry versus the rest of you lot. Lastly..."

"No magic is permitted!" they finished in unison.

"Why do we have to have Ron?" Ginny asked with her arms crossed.

"Because he throws like a girl," Fred laughed.

"Besides, Harry is really the only person awesome enough to be teamed up with us." George then ran off to begin forming snowballs at one side of the yard while Harry and Fred started on a fort.

Ginny immediately entered competitive mode. She ordered Ron to start making snowballs while she and Hermione constructed a wall of snow to serve as their fort. Soon enough, snowballs of various sizes were flying across the yard at alarming speeds. Fort walls on either side took hits and shrunk in size as portions were blown into the wind. Periodically, the teams would duck down to make more snowballs and then resume attack, shouting and cheering all the while.

"Come on, Ronald! Put a little more effort than that into it!" shouted a twin from behind the wall.

"Yeah! Hermione's doing better than you!" came the other's voice only it came from behind. Hermione whipped around and found herself face-to-face with Fred and an evil looking grin that spread from ear-to-ear. Before Hermione could cry out, Fred scooped her off the ground and slung her over his shoulder. He ran across the battlefield with his hostage squirming and fighting the whole way.

"That's cheating!" Ginny cried after her brother as she chucked a rather large snowball at his head.

"Fred Weasley!" Hermione shrieked as she pounded on Fred's strong shoulders. "You put me down this instant or I will hex you in your sleep!"

"As you wish," Fred said and, with an evil laugh, Fred tossed Hermione into a giant snowbank and ran away cackling.

"You're a complete arse!" Hermione roared as she got to her feet. She then gave chase to Fred, jumping over the low garden wall into the field beyond and throwing snow at him as she went. "I'll get you for that!" she bellowed.

"You'll have to catch me first, Hermione!" Fred teased as he disappeared behind a giant bale of snow-covered hay.

"Where are you?" Hermione shouted. Her voice was beginning to sound hoarse from all of her yelling. "Pudding-head Fred," Hermione sang as she inched toward the hay bale. "Where are you, you great prat?" To her surprise, the hay bale began to shake and tilt. She jumped backwards to avoid being knocked over but she didn't go far enough and the pile of snow that sat atop it came pouring down on top of her head. Fred stood where the hay bale used to sit clutching his sides and laughing. Without shaking the snow off of herself, Hermione lunged at Fred like a lioness going in for the kill, but luck just wasn't on her side for Fred side-stepped and lifted Hermione off the ground by her waist. "Let me go this instant!" Hermione shrieked as she flailed about and tried to pry Fred's arms open.

"No way, 'Mione," Fred said as he stepped over the wall and back into the yard. "It's back into the battlefield with you!" but before Fred could toss Hermione back in, Mrs. Weasley summoned them in for breakfast.

"Are you going to put me down or are you going to carry me into the house?" Hermione asked over her shoulder. Fred smiled broadly and gently let Hermione down. He received a well-deserved punch to the arm as well as a threat that promised him pain and agony in the very near future.

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**SQUEE! Feelings! I have so many! *sob sob sob* Reviews, please?**


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